Ubuntu / Linux news and application reviews.

The first beta for the Ubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf flavors (Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, Ubuntu MATE, Lubuntu and Ubuntu Kylin) was released today. Let's take a quick look at what's new!

Kubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf Beta 1

Kubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf Beta 1 ships with Plasma 5.4 beta (5.3.95) and KDE Applications 15.08 beta (but the final 15.08 version is already available in the Proposed repository) which includes changes such as:

a new Audio Volume applet that works directly with PulseAudio;

a new fullscreen Application Dashboard alternative launcher;

over 1400 new icons;

KRunner now remembers your previous searches;

the Networks applet is now able to display network traffic graphs;

much improved high DPI support;

smaller memory footprint;

a new, much faster desktop search backend;

new additions to the KDE Frameworks 5-based applications list, including Dolphin, the Kontact Suite, Ark, Picmi and more.

Ubuntu MATE 15.10 Wily Werewolf Beta 1

Ubuntu MATE 15.10 Wily Werewolf ships with a combination of MATE 1.8 and 1.10 and it includes the following changes:

MATE 1.10 changes:

Caja now has an extension manager so plugins can be enabled/disabled at run-time;
improved multi-monitor support;
libmatemixer, an audio mixer library for MATE desktop, has been introduced with MATE 1.10;
CSD and pop-over support;

Mate Welcome was updated with various UI improvements, software categories and new applications on the Software page such as AppGrid, Chromium, Disks, Hardinfo, SpiderOakONE, Ubuntu Software Center (which as you probably know, is no longer installed by default in Ubuntu

MATE 15.10) and VeraCrypt;

MATE Tweak has gained support for two new panel layouts: Fedora and Mageia;

Deja Dup is now integrated with Caja.

Below you'll find a few screenshots with some of these changes:

There are some MATE packages which are still at version 1.8, like Atril, MATE Panel, MATE Control Center, MATE Power Manager, Engrampa, MATE Applets, MATE Faenza Icon Theme, MATE Sensors Applet and MATE User Share.

Ubuntu GNOME 15.10 Wily Werewolf Beta 1

Ubuntu GNOME 15.10 Wily Werewolf ships with GNOME 3.16 for the most part and it includes the following changes:

GNOME 3.16 includes some important changes, like:

a new notification system which has replaced the old Message Tray. The notification history can now be accessed from the date/time menu (Top Bar);

legacy "tray" icons are now displayed in a "drawer" that used autohide at the bottom left corner of the screen;

the Activities Overview, login/lock screen, system menus and others have received an updated design (including monochrome icons for the applications menu);

improved scrollbars, which are now only displayed when needed;

Redesigned GNOME Image Viewer, which now uses header bars;

many other changes - you can read all about it (including a video) HERE;

GNOME Getting Started Guide is now included by default and runs on first login;

Shotwell has been replaced with GNOME Photos;

GNOME Music is now installed by default (Rhythmbox continues to be installed by default as well).

Here are a few screenshots with some of these changes:

GNOME Photos

New GTK 3.6 scrollbars

GNOME Image Viewer

Notification history / events and calendar

GNOME Music

Legacy tray icons

While GTK and GNOME Shell was updated to version 3.16 (3.16.3 for GNOME Shell and 3.16.6 for GTK) and so were many GNOME apps, older versions are still used for some applications, like Files (still at version 3.14.2) and Gedit (the ancient 3.10.4 version is still used)